You don’t need to hit or injure aother person to be reckless. An accidentally discharged firearm is proof enough of that. This guy could have very seriously injured that boy. We’re talking about a collision between an out of control 200+Lb man, a 4 year old boy, concrete and metal. If the boy had been next to his mom when the dude fell, we’re talking broken bones and a stretcher, rather than a free bat.
Yeah, I know what you’re saying, Cheesecake. I kind of think it was reckless behavior in general but that his contact with the kid was incidental and not worth mentioning.
Take the kid out of the equation for a moment. It’s still reckless behavior, although it’s typical for fans going for foul balls. Which does not, of course, excuse the behavior.
Hmm, what an awful typo. Sorry, Cheesesteak. Didn’t want you to think I was being disrespectful.
For a second there, I thought I was being hit on 
Yeah, the bump itself is not that big a deal, it’s the crashing to the ground inches away from a little kid that matters.
You know, I was kind of reluctant to semi-defend the dumb jerk who flung himself into the row below him, as I was to semi-critcize the mother who whacked him with a program.
Now, I think the kid’s parents deserve a pitting of their own. Apparently the kid’s parents flew him to NY to appear on Good Morning America to discuss this horrid tragedy.
Nice… the kid doesn’t even know what’s going on, and now the parents are whoring him out, subjecting him to cross-country flights and the glare of the tv cameras.
zuma
Well, after seeing your posting, yes I can see how the parents are wrongfully villifying the fan who was merely trying to get a foul ball. I’d say that fan is like Alfred Dreyfuss or Richard Kimball - an innocent victim of blind justice. :rolleyes:
Yes, let’s hear his side of the story. Let him go on “Good Morning America” give his name and addres, stop trying to shy away from the publicity he so richly deserves. I’m sure he’d love to hear what the American people really think of him.
I do kinda disagree with the whole “Good Morning America” thing, but he did get some Mets tickets out of the deal.
I would also like to add this:
So I guess that was his wife that refused to leave with him after a couple of innings.
Oh how I love the quotes from the guy’s pastor. What’s he gonna say? “No doubt about it, Matt Starr is going straight to hell.”
So that was Matt Star of Sachse, Texas huh?
Okay, even if he got a little carried away, he still had time to sit and relax and FINALLY get the “HINT” from the fans that maybe what he did was wrong. If not, why did he leave in the 4th inning?
And what is the value of that precious foul ball now? If he puts it on E-Bay, is anyone seriously going to bid on it? AND how do you even know it is THE foul ball? I mean would you say that Matt Starr is a person of outstanding integrity and honor?
I can’t believe some of you are saying the woman shouldn’t have been hitting him with the program. If I were sitting at a game, with or without a child, and some great big asshat suddenly jumped over a row of seats, fell into me, and started scrambling around my legs – lemme tell you, it wouldn’t be the program I’d be hitting him with, unless the very first words out of his mouth were an apology. She hit him with a program, not a Webster’s Unabridged.
Look, I can understand getting carried away in trying to get a foul ball. And I’m not really in the camp of “automatically give it to a kid”. But this dude was such a freakin’ jackass about it! All he had to do was apologize, ask if the kid (and his mom) was okay, buy them some soda, something like that. From what I can see in the video, he didn’t so much as pause to make sure the kid wasn’t bleeding before he jumped back over the seats waving his prize. Even after that, he could have showed the slightest bit of consideration! He’s a grownup. He should know that when you make a mistake, you apologize.
Excuse me while I wipe away a tear. That was beautiful. 
Here ya go
He’s Matt Starr from Dallas. 28, married, landscaper.
AND A FORMER YOUTH MINISTER!!! :eek: :smack: :wally
In a very tiny little smidgen of a way I felt sorry for that guy, you could see the intense “I’ve just fucked up and I am going to try to keep a stiff upper lip and fein innocence” look on his face. A bad decision, but a snap one and once it’s made it’s hard to reverse, especially when millions tens of thousands of peope are booing you and millions watching.
In a much bigger way I think he’s a jerk.
It made the UK channel 4 news BTW.
This could get even more interesting. Perhaps the woman he was with was not his wife.
. Former, eh? At the ripe retirement age of 28? I suspect dealing with plants was easier for him than dealing with people.
I’m guessing (read: hoping) you don’t have any kids. 'Cause you’re an asshole.
Youth minister is generally a junior position and often not even paid staff; you rarely see 40-year-olds doing it. They’re either guys right out of seminary, or as I suspect in this case, a layman doing it for a couple of years after college.
Yeah, me too. That clip was hard to watch. I could easily see myself doing something stupid like that. (I have a long history of stupid behavior) But I would have given the ball to the kid pretty quick I imagine, rather than taunt the crowd further.
Best part was the mother goin’ all “Ruth Buzzy” on the guy! I nearly wet myself laughing at that! And that announcer! How brutal! He has no self-editing issues. I bet had he been “On Air” during the “O.J. White Bronco Chase”, he would have shamed him into a confession!
The only bright spot was that very classy outfielder. Good for you!
For Og’s sake people, will you stop feeding htns?
Back in the early 1980’s there was a television show titled **“The Powers of Matthew Star” http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083467/
Maybe the networks can get that baseball fan to act in
"The NEW Powers of Matther Starr"
The new, invincible Matthew Starr can:
- Steal baseballs from 4 year old children.
- Remain unscathed while enduring “brutal” beatings from program-wielding fans.
- Disappear from angry baseball crowds.
- Disappear from the face of the Earth.
- Feel guilt-free about a meaningless “triumph”.
- Buy an order of fries (small) from the “massive” windfall he received when he sold that baseball.
Three cheers for the mother- I know exactly what my mother would have hit the guy with if it had been me getting kicked, and you can bet it would be more than a cardboard fan.